Dirus exclamat Charon:
Seneca’s Use of Oratio Recta in “Messenger” Speeches

Thomas D. Kohn (Wayne State University)

This paper examines the use of direct quotation in several of Seneca’s “messenger” speeches, and shows that this is a technique which adds to the vividness of these passages. Victor Beers, Speech in Speech (Lanham, MD: 1997) 72-94, discusses oratio recta in Euripidean messenger speeches; but no one has looked at Seneca’s practices.

Horace says in the Ars Poetica that a playwright can either act out an action on the stage or describe it. Further, while there are certain things the audience does not want to see, the mind is moved less by hearing about them than by seeing them (lines 179-88). Seneca tragicus, however, disproves this second idea.

Much like his Greek predecessors, the Roman playwright makes use of messengers to tell the audience about events that happen off-stage, such as the blinding of Oedipus, described by an unnamed servant (Oedipus 915-79). These messengers, however, are not always anonymous, but sometimes are fairly important characters, as is the case in the Oedipus where Creon delivers a description of Tiresias’ necromancy (lines 530-658). These characters not only describe those things that Horace would not want to be seen on stage (i.e., the murder of the children of Thyestes and the rending of Hippolytus); they also provide accounts of horrific settings. For example, Theseus in the Hercules Furens tells Amphitryo about the Underworld (lines 658-827). But these descriptions in Senecan tragedy are very vivid, often coming more alive for the audience simply through language than would be the case if the playwright were somehow able to stage the events. One can almost see Hercules as he travels in the land of the dead; and Oedipus seems to be in front of the audience as he puts out his eyes.

Seneca uses many techniques to make these descriptions so vivid. One, which has not been previously studied, is his use of oratio recta within these speeches. In the HF, Charon’s actual words, quoted by Theseus, enhance the reality for the audience of Hercules’ journeys in the Underworld (HF 772). In the Oedipus, the necromancy comes alive, as it were, when we hear the words of Laius (Oedipus 626-58); and Oedipus’ blinding gains urgency when we hear the king himself expressing his own rationale (Oedipus 936-77). And these are just a few examples of a device which Seneca uses often. Together with such other techniques as explicit description and employing another character to ask questions, the use of direct quotation by Seneca tragicus disproves at least one of the dictates of Horace.